Alasdair Fraser’s Game of The Year 2015

This year has been a wonderful one for gaming. While I haven’t managed to play as many titles to completion as I would have liked, I was still chuffed with 2015’s offering. Having made the switch from my ailing PC to the Xbox One, I was able to pick up some of the current crop of triple-A titles. As such I have decided to run through some of the games I enjoyed this year, followed by my runners up and then finally my game of the year.

So many great games came out near the end of this year, leading to a substantial backlog, and that doesn’t even include the plethora of games that Xbox have welcomed back into my living room with its Backwards Compatibility feature (chiefly Mass Effect). Those, and great titles from recent years released through Xbox Live’s Gold program have kept me well entertained. Between Gold and EA Access’ Vault, I’ve been able to enjoy many of last year’s games on the cheap.

While I failed to get my hands on Fallout 4 and Forza’s latest offering, I did manage to play the beta and 10 hour trial for Star Wars: Battlefront. While short on content and mechanically very simplistic, the game shines graphically and has some of the best sound design I’ve ever heard in a game. Additionally, I grabbed Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones, an unexpected gem of a rich but bleak story and brilliantly engrossing interactivity, a significant step forward after the success of their The Walking Dead series.

Honorable mentions out of the way, it’s time for my two runners up. In third place, Crystal Dynamic and Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider. An absolute treat of a game with rewarding exploration, punishing but fun challenge tombs and a much-improved story compared with their previous offering.

Taking second place, of course, would be Halo 5: Guardians (you can read my review here). Containing some of the best voice acting and motion capture I have experienced in a game and arguably the best Halo multiplayer experience since 2007’s Halo 3, I was blown away by 343’s return to the Halo saga. If you’ll excuse my fanboy moment, the Xbox exclusives were on point this year.

It should come as no surprise that The Witcher III: Wild Hunt won this year’s game of the year and the top spot on my list. Lauded for its beauty, satisfying mechanics, and compelling story, the game won this writer’s heart, and of many millions of gamers the world around. I really can’t see any other gaming winning this year. 200 odd hours of pure joy, and I’ve only just started my second full play through ao I can see the Season pass DLC.